A name probably unfamiliar to you just as it was to me is that of Harriet Quimby who became the first licensed female pilot in the United States August 1, 1911 and April 16, 1912 she was the first woman to fly a plane across the English Channel. She pointed the direction for future women pilots.
The U.S. in 1911 saw William Taft (R) serve as president. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed 146. In May 1911 the main branch of the New York Public Library opened. Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, was born February 6, 1911.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1911 showed 93 million compared to today’s population numbers of 335 million residents. Eggs cost 34 cents a dozen in 1911. Milk was 34 cents a gallon. Coffee was 27 cents a pound and the average price of a new car was $2,214. The average factory employee earned $600. a month.
Harriet was born May 11, 1875 in Michigan and was to become a U.S. pioneer, aviator, journalist, and film screenwriter. Her father had purchased a farm there in 1874 and the family was listed in the 1880 United States Census. After her family moved to San Francisco in the early 1900s, she became a journalist.
Harriet Quimby worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. Later, she moved to Manhattan to work as a theatre critic for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. More than 250 of her articles were published, 1903-1913. She wrote articles about her flying adventures and saw flying as an ideal sport for women. August 1, 1911 she took her pilot’s test and became the first USA woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate.
Reporters called her the “Dresden China Aviatrix” or “ChinaDoll” because of her petite stature and fair skin. Pilots could earn as much as $1,000 per performance and prize money could go as high as $10,000 for a race. She earned $1,500 for a night flight over Staten Island before a crowd of 20,000 spectators. In The New York Times of September 5, 1911, it was reported that “Harriet Quimby darts about in the moonshine above an admiring crowd.”
April 16, 1912 she took off from Dover, England en route to Calais, France and made the flight in 59 minutes and landed on a beach in Equihen-Plage, Pas-de-Calais. Her accomplishment received little media attention, however, the sinking of the Titanic ocean liner the prior day rivetted the public interest and filled the newspapers.
In 1911 Harriet Quimby authored seven screenplays that were made into silent film shorts by Biograph Studios. In 1991 the U.S. Postal Service issued a 50 cent airmail stamp featuring Harriet Quimby. She is memorialized in two official Michigan historical markers. In 2004 she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
In 2012 Harriet was inducted into the Log Island Air and Space Hall of Fame. Quimby Road at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose is named in her honor.
July 1, 1912 she flew in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet in Massachusetts. William Willard organized the event and was a passenger in her brand new two set Bleriot monoplane. At an altitude of 1,000 feet the aircraft unexpectedly pitched forward and both were ejected from their seats and fell to their death while the plane “glided down and lodged itself in the mud.”
Harriet Quimby died in 1912 at just age 37 and was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.